Thursday, March 10, 2011

Suddenly, Again, States Have Authority Over Immigration

Like the Pakistani State of Punjab, Utah has decided that it will make foreign and immigration policy rather than the Federal government. Previously the radical left claimed that immigration and foreign affairs were the exclusive domain of the Federal government. But like the lying hypocrites they are, they lied when they decried Arizona's efforts to enforce outstanding Federal law. However, they now have a State that is pushing amnesty and they suddenly have a change of mind on the exclusivity of Federal authority over immigration and foreign affairs.

Utah has gone so far that it is negotiating treaties with foreign powers:

SALT LAKE CITY — A proposed migrant worker partnership between Utah and a state in Mexico drew high praise and little criticism in a legislative committee meeting Thursday.

Members of the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved a bill that would create program to bring workers from Nuevo Leon to the state. HB 466 authored by Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, now moves to the House for consideration.

The bill would create a 28-member commission to develop a plan to bring migrant workers to Utah on federal work visas and authorize the governor to form an agreement with the Mexican state. The commission would evaluate the program after one year to determine whether to invite workers from other countries."This is a brilliant move," said Rep. Keith Grover, R-Provo. "I think it will bring people out of the shadows."

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the Mexican consul general will be in Utah on Friday to discuss the project. Nuevo Leon previously worked with Arizona until it passed a controversial illegal immigration enforcement measure.

Sandstrom, who has been vilified for his stance on illegal immigrants, said he's using the migrant worker bill as a "launching point" to let people know he's not anti-immigrant.

Alex Segura, of the Utah Minuteman Project, spoke against the bill. He told the committee that corruption and drug cartels rule in Mexico.

"What makes us think there will be integrity in the process?" he said, adding he can see cartels using the program as a ruse to get drug dealers into the country. "Why not look at training programs for citizens who are here now?"

Shurtleff said Nuevo Leon has a good track record for providing migrant workers. It closely monitors visas, has a 98 percent return rate and contacts ICE if workers don't leave when expected, he said.

HB466 wasn't the only bill the Legislature discussed Thursday that would bring immigrants to Utah legally.

Also Thursday, the House overwhelmingly passed HB 469, which would create a program allowing residents to sponsor up to two individuals or a family from a foreign country to live in Utah. Legislative attorneys say the bill would be unconstitutional because immigration is the purview of the federal government. It also would cost an estimated $1.3 million to implement.

The Senate, too, took up an illegal immigration bill, though only out of courtesy.

It is clear that Sen. Luz Robles' measure calling for accountability through state-issued work permits won't pass. The Senate initially snubbed but later reconsidered the Salt Lake Democrat's request to present her bill to the body.

Robles said the spirit of her bill remains relevant though it's not going anywhere. Some aspects may be incorporated into other legislation.

And created its own immigration law, determining who and under what conditions aliens are admitted and remain in the U.S.:

In the first move by a state to extend legal recognition to illegal immigrant laborers, the Utah Legislature has passed immigration bills that include a guest worker program that would allow unauthorized foreigners to work legally in the state.

With the immigration package, passed in both chambers of the Republican-controlled Legislature late Friday, Utah made a sharp break with the hard-line trend in state immigration legislation that has been led by Arizona, which passed a strict enforcement law last April.

Utah’s package includes measures to tighten enforcement against illegal immigrants that echo Arizona’s tough stance — like a requirement that the police check the immigration status of anyone arrested on a felony or a serious misdemeanor charge.

But supporters said the hybrid package offered an alternative to states, including those controlled by Republicans, that are seeking to avoid the costly political polarization and legal challenges that followed Arizona’s law and that also want to recognize the need of some businesses for immigrant labor in spite of high unemployment nationally.

The guest worker bill came after intense lobbying by business and farm groups as well as by some immigrant advocates, and it enjoyed the quiet but all-important endorsement of the Mormon Church. It is likely to raise many of the same constitutional questions as the Arizona law, including whether it intrudes on areas of immigration law reserved exclusively for the federal government. Central provisions of Arizona’s law, known as S. B. 1070, were suspended by federal courts pending a lawsuit by the Obama administration.

But in contrast to Arizona’s approach, Utah lawmakers framed their bill to set up a negotiation, rather than a confrontation, between the governor and the federal authorities. Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican who handily won election in November, is expected to sign the bill.

“Utah is the anti-Arizona,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a group in Washington that favors legislation by Congress to grant legal status to illegal immigrants. “Instead of indulging the fantasy that you can drive thousands of people out of your state, it combines enforcement with the idea that those who are settled should be brought into the system.”

Under one bill approved on Friday, Utah would issue a two-year work permit to illegal immigrants who could prove that they had been living and working in the state. To qualify, immigrants would have to pass a criminal background check and pay fines of up to $2,500.

The bill gives the governor until 2013 to negotiate with federal immigration authorities for a waiver for the guest worker program. Under federal law, it is a violation for an employer to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant. If no waiver has been obtained by then, the guest worker program would go into effect anyway.

Under a separate bill, also approved Friday, officers would be required to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest on a felony or serious misdemeanor charge.

Lawmakers revised that bill to remove terms borrowed from the Arizona law that would have allowed the police to ask immigration questions based on a “reasonable suspicion” that a person they stopped was an illegal immigrant. That provision, among others, was strongly opposed by Latinos in Arizona, who said it would lead to racial profiling.

State Representative Bill Wright, a Republican who was the sponsor of the guest worker bill in the House, said it was intended to be a practical way to deal with illegal immigrants in the state. “I’m a very conservative Republican; I’m not moderate at all,” he said. But, he said, “we literally do not have the ability to remove those who are here illegally.”

The enforcement measure was sponsored by State Representative Stephen Sandstrom, a Republican who has been an outspoken proponent of following Arizona’s lead on immigration.

Many groups in Utah hoped to avoid the expense and furor provoked by Arizona’s bill. In November, a range of groups signed a proposal called the Utah Compact, which laid out principles that included respect for the law but also supported a free-market business approach and opposed measures that would separate families by deportation. It was signed by the Salt Lake Chamber, a statewide business group; the Roman Catholic Church; the Salt Lake City Police Department and mayor’s office; and local immigration advocate groups.

The Mormon Church, which had been cautious on the issue, did not sign the compact but immediately endorsed it.

Not everyone in Utah was happy with the new immigration measures. Several hundred protesters from immigrant organizations demonstrated outside the Capitol on Saturday, calling the enforcement bill racist and urging Mr. Herbert to veto it, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

David Leopold, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Utah’s bills were “another ill-advised attempt by a state to regulate immigration.” He warned that the effort “dangerously treads into a policy area that is the sole province of the federal government.”

The Utah measures, coming from one of the most conservative states in the nation, open an avenue for action for Republican politicians who have been concerned that the strident tone of supporters of Arizona’s law — including Gov. Jan Brewer and Russell Pearce, the Arizona Senate majority leader who wrote the bill — has alienated Latino voters.

Some Republican leaders have argued that to win the presidency in 2012, they need to increase Latino support in states like California, Nevada, New York and Texas. Among others, Newt Gingrich, a potential presidential candidate, and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, have pressed fellow Republicans to moderate their speech on immigration.

“Utah thought Arizona’s law would backfire,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, a Republican group that has been working to draw the party toward an immigration policy with more appeal to Hispanics. “It was not business-friendly, and it would drive away workers and investment. Utah has provided conservative arguments for passing a different kind of measure.”

Arizona's immigration enforcement law drew a boycott by the nation’s most prominent Latino organizations and cost the state $86 million in lost convention and tourism business, according to an estimate by the Center for American Progress, a group that opposed the measure. Mr. Pearce has proposed a new package of immigration restrictions that go far beyond last year’s.

Another bill that passed the Utah House and is likely to be approved next week in the Senate would set up a partnership with Nuevo León State in Mexico to bring temporary farm workers to Utah through the existing federal guest worker program.

Supporters of the bills in Utah said they should be a model for action on immigration by Congress. “It’s doable,” said Wesley Smith, director of public policy for the Salt Lake Chamber. “The extremes have dominated the immigration debate for so long, it makes it so refreshing to see that a practical solution is possible.”

So, now the debate of SB1070 is over and the United States will have 51 different sets of immigration laws. Let the deportations begin!

But what the lousy reporters did not tell you was that there is no "waiver" of Federal immigration laws. None of the Utah bills can be implemented. American's just can't sign up to "sponsor" an immigrant, nor may Utah bring aliens to the U.S. to work, nor may it authorize the employment of aliens.